UNICORN By Maggie McCoy He is watching me. I can see his eyes. Blue, Like a stormy night on a foggy port. A spiral, Twisting, Turning, Winding its way to a peak, Reaching for Heaven. Catching the faintest breeze. A stance he is in that says, "What do you see?" I reply,"A unicorn."

Unicorns are not mythical creatures, nor are they physical creatures in the way you might think of them. Unicorns are the astral bodies of a special type of person possessed of both a physical manifestation (human) and an astral manifestation as a powerful equine with cloven hooves and a single horn. This horn is the focal point of their magickal power which enables this dual life, and as such is an extremely potent talisman of great magickal energy. That the unicorn shows this horn only in the astral planes does not detract from its potency in the physical.

Unicorns are quite often natural healers, curing ails with a touch of their physical (human) form or by contact with the afflicted's essence in the ethereal or astral planes. It is this very healing magick that many hunters seek, not realizing, often, that unicorns will offer their healing touch to any of pure heart who needs it.

Unicorns are the embodiment of the fiery energies of masculinity balanced with the healing and soothing energies of femininity. That the horn is such a powerful phallic symbol is no wonder, when one considers that unicorn stallions are masculinity-as-it-should-be: strength tempered by wisdom, force tempered by compassion, action tempered by calm, and destructive nature tempered by creative energy.

All unicorns, male or female, have the ability to speak to and commune with a variety of beasts of the fields (quite similar to were-creatures abilities) and tend to be much more in tune with the forces of nature both within and without the physical world in which we live.

If you wish to meet a unicorn in person, look for the man or woman who seems to attract those who are in pain (physical or mental/emotional) and sends them away feeling better without trying. Or, look for the man or woman who seems to understand the songs of coyotes and wolves, the calls of ravens and sparrows, the neighing of horses, the contemplative words of owls, or even the song of the wind through the trees or the call of the river as it races to the ocean. Then look for the slight longing for a far-away place in the eyes, and most likely you have found a living unicorn.

Note: This is my view of what it is to be a unicorn, and there are many unicorns out there, I'm sure, who will disagree with me, (including a few who don't realize they are unicorns yet).

"To this day, it is said, malicious animals poison this water after sundown, so that none can thereupon drink it. But early in the morning, as soon as the sun rises, a unicorn comes out of the ocean, dips his horn into the water to expel the venom from it so that the other animals may drink thereof during the day. This as I describe it. I saw it with my own eyes."

--Johannes van Hesse of Utrecht; 1389

"Toward noon we spotted an animal gazing down at us from a sterile mountain peak of red and black rocks... Our guide stated that the animal must certainly be a unicorn, and he pointed out to us the single horn which jutted from its forehead. With great caution we gazed back at this most noble creature, regretting it was no closer for us to examine still more minutely."

--Friar Faber; 1438

"The unicorns were the most recognizable magic the fairies possessed, and they sent them to those worlds where belief in the magic was in danger of failing altogether. After all there has to be some belief in magic - however small - for any world to survive".

--Terry Brooks, The Black Unicorn

"Then what is magic for ?" "What use is wizardry if it cannot save a Unicorn ?"

--Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

"Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length."

--Ctesias; Indica, 416B.C.

"Like a lion, without fear of the howling pack; Like a gust of wind, ne'er trapped in a snare; Like a lotus blossom, ne'er sprinkled by water; Like me, like a unicorn, in solitude roam."

--Hymn of Buddha

When the last eagle flies Over the last crumbling mountain And the last lion roars At the last dusty fountain In the shadow of the forest Though she may be old and worn They will stare unbelieving At the Last Unicorn